


Road Full of Promise

by Joanna_Kay



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Mentions of Cancer, Mentions of PTSD, character introspection, mentions of 9/11 terrorist attack, mentions of canon suicide attempt (not successful)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:02:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29658666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joanna_Kay/pseuds/Joanna_Kay
Summary: Owen and TK Strand the night before they leave for Austin, Texas.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Fan Fiction Library (Discord) Challenge #1 - 20 Prompts





	Road Full of Promise

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first 9-1-1 Lonestar fic. I have seen only the pilot episode. This is un-beta'd but has been spelling and grammar checked and read through, so please excuse any mistakes. 
> 
> This is a response to two separate Discord server event challenges. The first, from Fanfiction Library, was to embed the dialogue: "Please say something." The second, from Fanfiction HQ, was simply: Perfect.
> 
> I hope you like it!

It was late when Owen Strand made his way to the Twin Tower Memorial. The New York City streets were quieter at this time, primarily cabs and Uber driving people home, the majority of mass transit shut down for the night. The smooth stone gleamed under streetlights, etched names a bronze glow dotted throughout. Cavernous squares lay beyond, cleaned up and stitched scars that nonetheless showed the pain and horror the city, and incidentally every American, had lived through.

This was his favorite time to visit the Memorial, a place he had initially avoided for years. It had taken him years of therapy before he felt ready enough to venture to the site that changed his life. Countless hours working through PTSD, grief and survivor’s guilt had finally, finally given him the stability he needed to stand where he was.

The Twin Towers falling had changed his life. He had been a good fireman before it, secure and happy in his career and marriage. He had been a good man, he thought. He hoped. He honestly didn’t remember much of who he was then. 9/11 had burned through his mind, cemented by countless funerals of comrades.

Now, he was sure that he did his best to be a good man. He had pulled his station out of a grief-stricken spiral. None of them forgot why they did what they did; the photographs of those lost through the years were testament. Their faces and medals watched them every single time they left with sirens ablaze, silent encouragement to save as many people as possible. Each and every one of them were his family, brothers and sisters forged through sweat, tears and flame.

He was leaving them all. In the morning, he and TK were leaving for Texas, a new chapter in their lives.

TK as a single gay man, heading somewhere that may not be as accepted as the city he grew up in. A committed relationship had blown up in his face, a night he planned a romantic proposal ending up the night his trust broken and his heart shattered instead.

Owen was a middle-aged double divorcee about to embark on the biggest fights of his life. The easier one was what he was hired for: dragging Station 126 of Austin, Texas into the 21st century, kicking cowboy boots and screaming. The harder fight was going to be against the cancer in his own body.

Owen shook his head, staring unseeing into the abyss before him, mind churning as he shuddered beneath his leather jacket. He had spent years sculpting his body into a tool, into a weapon against whatever he directed it at. He knew exactly how it would respond in any given situation, knew what boundaries he could push. He cared for it and it responded to that care.

That it would turn on him was terrifying.

“Dad?”

Owen turned to acknowledge his son, the younger man looking slightly frail in his grey hoodie, shoulders hunched over. Ever since his relapse, TK had been quiet and almost nervous. Packing up his apartment fraught with emotions as he divided belongings between him and his ex; though they had not lived together, it hadn’t stopped belongings from making their way across town.

It had taken Owen hours of fighting to convince TK it would be better to just throw the other man’s stuff out. It was a dick move, but the last face to face meeting had caused him to swallow a handful of pills. Returning them was dangerous and Owen was determined to protect his son to the best of his ability.

They stood together, shoulders just barely touching.

Visiting the Memorial had never been the almost religious sojourn to TK as it was to his father. TK had been seven when the towers fell, a tooth-gapped first grader oblivious to the tension in his mom as he enjoyed the unexpected day off from school. He had spent most of the day frustrated that his mother hadn’t allowed him to watch cartoons or go out with his friends, absently fixing him snacks and letting him play as she kept her eyes glued to the TV.

It had been followed by a string of babysitters as his parents left, his father in his dress uniform and his mother in a parade of black dresses.

It wasn’t until he was a teenager that he made the connection between the terrorist attack that rocked the city he grew up in and the grim shadows in his father’s eyes, the arguments that turned to silence before his mother left.

“Please say something.” TK hated how he sounded, reminding himself of a little boy seeking his father’s approval. It had been that way for days, ever since That Night and the following morning when his father had saved his life and career.

“I’m just… saying goodbye.” Owen looked over at his son and clasped his shoulder, squeezing it as a sign of support. “It feels strange that this might be the last time I come here,” he admitted.

“C’mon, Dad. We’ll be back in New York in no time.”

Owen shook his head at his son’s naivete. The younger firefighter had no idea what they were facing down in Texas. To him, it was just another job, one his father was taking him along for. The scars in the community, the families, the wounds that would have to be lanced to get the infection out… It was all abstract to the man used to a smooth running station held up as an example to others.

It wasn’t an easy road ahead of them. It could take years to get the station off the ground and to Owen’s standards. Years that Owen himself may not have.

With a deep breath and a mental reminder that he had to call his doctor for a recommendation down in Austin, Owen glanced at his son and wondered just when would be the best time to tell TK about his cancer. Not now, he decided. TK was still too fragile to take another hit.

Once they were in Austin and TK had his feet firmly settled beneath him again, it would be different.

“Everything okay?”

Owen grinned and nodded. “Everything’s perfect.” Bright eyes roved over the Memorial one more time before he turned.

“Let’s go, son.”

As they walked side by side, Owen’s stomach twisted at the lie he told his son. He only hoped TK wouldn’t be too mad when Owen finally told him.

Maybe this move was just what the Strand men needed.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! Any feedback is appreciated!


End file.
